HRC 55: SRI, CREA & TCIG Statement to the Annual interactive debate on the rights of persons with disabilities

Thank you, Chair.

Action Canada makes this statement on behalf of the Sexual Rights Initiative, CREA and Transforming Communities for Inclusion Global.

Community support systems are one of the fundamentals for ensuring community inclusion and providing an enabling environment for persons with disabilities. There is a perspective that if we provide support services, inclusion will happen, but the larger question remains: how do you ensure persons with disabilities have actual access to these services? In many instances, social protection benefits are not accessed by persons with disabilities due to family’s own perception of their legal incapacity. We need to understand what are the additional support elements which need to be available for accessing services ensuring the inclusion of persons with disabilities. There must be an emphasis on community support systems such as making the community aware, providing peer support, strengthening community support networks, and other informal ways of support. Community inclusion should also acknowledge and include an intersectional lens and State Parties need to ensure that power relations in the services are serving the rights of persons with disabilities and respecting their leadership because we still see protectionist and paternalistic approaches in the service sector.

Thank you.